Annihilation of Caste

An account with excerpts from B. R. Ambedkar's undelivered 1936 speech, 'Annihilation of Caste'. Maintained by @raghumahajan.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Every society gets encumbered with dead wood from the past, and with what is positively perverse. As a society becomes more enlightened, it realises that it is responsible not to conserve the whole of its existing achievements, but only such as make for a better future society.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Goodbye, and good wishes for your success.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Yours is more difficult than the other national cause, namely, swaraj (freedom, from the British).

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

There is no use having swaraj, if you cannot defend it. It is only when Hindu society becomes a casteless society that it can hope to have the strength to defend itself.

Without such internal strength, swaraj for Hindus may turn out to be only a step towards slavery.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

You must make your efforts to uproot caste, if not in my way, then in your way. Yours is a national cause. Caste is no doubt primarily the breath of the Hindus. But the Hindus have fouled the air all over, and everybody is infected—Sikh, Muslim and Christian.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

I have to confess that this address has become too lengthy. Whether this fault is compensated to any extent by breadth or depth is a matter for you to judge. All I claim is to have told you candidly my views.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Every society gets encumbered with dead wood from the past, and with what is positively perverse. As a society becomes more enlightened, it realises that it is responsible not to conserve the whole of its existing achievements, but only such as make for a better future society.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Prof John Dewey, who was my teacher and to whom I owe so much, has said:

(This quote is from the second chapter of Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916))

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Fourthly, the Hindus must consider whether the time has not come for them to recognise that there is nothing fixed, nothing eternal, nothing sanatan; that everything is changing, that change is the law of life for individuals as well as for society.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

This would probably be my last address to a Hindu audience, on a subject vitally concerning the Hindus. I would therefore like, before I close, to place before the Hindus some questions which I regard as vital.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Thirdly, the Hindus must consider whether they must not cease to worship the past as supplying their ideals.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

This means a complete change in the fundamental notions of life. It means a complete change in the values of life. It means a complete change in outlook and in attitude towards men and things.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

You must give a new doctrinal basis to your religion—a basis that will be in consonance with liberty, equality and fraternity; in short, with democracy.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

I am no authority on the subject, but I am told that for such religious principles as will be in consonance with liberty, equality and fraternity, it may not be necessary for you to borrow from foreign sources, and that you could draw for such principles on the Upanishads.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

There should be no opposition to this reform from any quarter. It should be welcomed even by the Arya Samajists, because this is merely an application of their own doctrine of guna–karma.

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

I am so convinced of the necessity of religion that I feel I ought to tell you in outline what I regard as necessary items in this religious reform:

[Annihilation of Caste @Annihilationof1]

Such a legislation will certainly help to kill Brahminism and will also help to kill caste, which is nothing but Brahminism incarnate. Brahminism is the poison which has spoiled Hinduism. You will succeed in saving Hinduism if you will kill Brahminism.